Ahmad was released from prison 2 days ago
Ahmad is 20 years old. A bit stocky. Always smiling. The neighbourhood's prankster. Playing practical jokes on everybody, all the time.I have slightly known Ahmad for many years. "Hyperactive", they said about him at school. Always on the move, always doing something, always causing everybody to laugh. The neighbourhood's clown.
And then a joke went wrong. Very wrong.
Had Ahmad lived in north Tel Aviv, the fancy lawyer his parents would have taken for him, would have gotten him off. Perhaps a few hours of volunteering somewhere, as an educational punishment.
No one could believe it, when Ahmad was sent to jail for playing a practical joke on a taxi driver. The least of all, Ahmad himself.
But Ahmad, with no previous criminal record, a good boy from a nice Jaffa family, was sent to jail. For playing a practical joke. Ahmad, the innocent clowning kid with the smile on his face. Playing football in Rifat Turk's soccer school, participating in educational camps, in spite of his learning disability. A good and positive boy, growing up under difficult conditions.
Not to an "easy" jail, for first-time offenders, but to one of the tougher places of Israel's prison system, Atlit (or Carmel Prison as it is called these days, as if a fancy name can hide the misery behind the high white-washed concrete, barbed wire covered walls).
Why? Hell knows, or perhaps the shabak.
i wonder what prison has done to him. He looks older, more grown up. He's become religious. But he still has that same smile, that makes you laugh, the minute you see him.
This evening there will be a party for him. Mabruk, kid. I hope i can still call you "kid".
And then a joke went wrong. Very wrong.
Had Ahmad lived in north Tel Aviv, the fancy lawyer his parents would have taken for him, would have gotten him off. Perhaps a few hours of volunteering somewhere, as an educational punishment.
No one could believe it, when Ahmad was sent to jail for playing a practical joke on a taxi driver. The least of all, Ahmad himself.
But Ahmad, with no previous criminal record, a good boy from a nice Jaffa family, was sent to jail. For playing a practical joke. Ahmad, the innocent clowning kid with the smile on his face. Playing football in Rifat Turk's soccer school, participating in educational camps, in spite of his learning disability. A good and positive boy, growing up under difficult conditions.
Not to an "easy" jail, for first-time offenders, but to one of the tougher places of Israel's prison system, Atlit (or Carmel Prison as it is called these days, as if a fancy name can hide the misery behind the high white-washed concrete, barbed wire covered walls).
Why? Hell knows, or perhaps the shabak.
i wonder what prison has done to him. He looks older, more grown up. He's become religious. But he still has that same smile, that makes you laugh, the minute you see him.
This evening there will be a party for him. Mabruk, kid. I hope i can still call you "kid".
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